Hospital Fic for lack of a better title
by Obi Cadaver
Summary: The nightmares are getting worse for Alice.


Alice awoke to flashing lights and inarticulate faces. He felt hands roving over him, touching him, hurting him as they ran over fresh scratches and bruises. He shivered in the cold, sterile room, naked under the intense scrutiny of the faceless strangers above him.

It didn't take him long to remember how he arrived there; the children's song still echoed in his mind. He remembered the coldness in their voices, and the strange sort of sadness that seemed to filter through. He remembered watching them play, and the presence that seemed to hang over them, the cruel conductor, and the reason for the pain he was experiencing now.

All the terror and mayhem signified by one man wearing a beaten brown fedora.

Alice felt someone grab his arm, and in blind panic he lashed out, catching the man under the chin. All too soon, the others joined in, holding him down. His struggles were useless, and before long, he slipped back into drug induced slumber.

* * *

Trapped.

Alice was trapped. He had stepped from consciousness into a place where rules had no meaning, and anything, everything could be the weapon used to kill him.

Although, Alice thought sullenly, as he backed himself into a corner, death would seem preferable to what _he_ had in store.

Running was useless. Fighting, equally so. And as Alice ducked under yet another steam line he felt the need to kick himself in the head for trying to hide. Useless. All of it was useless. And yet even as he told himself this he still felt the innate need to try and do _something_.

The air around him shifted, and Alice knew the game was over; over before it had even begun.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" Cold breath caressed the back of Alice's neck, causing him to shiver. "Don't tell me you've had enough. The fun hasn't even started yet."

"Why are you doing this?" Alice asked scornfully, keeping his back, perhaps foolishly, to his tormentor.

It was stiflingly quiet for a moment, as if the man behind him was considering his answer. As if he needed to. One long, sharp blade drew itself down Alice's spine. Alice kept perfectly still, trying not to let this monster have any kind of power over him.

His resolve did not go unnoticed. "You want to play that badly?" the man asked finally, breaking the silence. He grabbed Alice by the forearm, and twisted him around sharply, so they now faced each other.

"Let's play a different game, tonight." he said, tone suggestive. He went to work, slicing down the middle of the thin shirt Alice was wearing.

"Why are you doing this?" Alice asked again, knowing damn well that he was only stalling the inevitable. He braced himself as far back as the grip on his arm would allow, and when that bought him very little space, he decided to try and push back.

"Not doing it for you?" he asked, drawing Alice in closer. "Would it help if I was wearing a hockey mask?"

Alice reared back angrily, and punched him square in the jaw. He knew it would cost him later, but it was well worth it.

Unfortunately, it didn't even seem to faze the other man, who just laughed in response.

"You like it rough, huh? Baby, I can be rough." The man leaned in closer, dragging a listless Alice towards him.

"Welcome to _my_ wonderland… Alice…"

* * *

A gentle tugging on his arm woke Alice this time. He very carefully looked over from his place on the gurney to see his manager, Paul.

"You okay, Alice?"

Alice sat up slowly, inadvertently pulling on the IV drip lines connected to his arm.

"What's your definition of 'okay,'?" Alice asked dryly, his voice hoarse.

The man shrugged, nervously rubbing a packet of smokes between his hands. Alice wondered absentmindedly at how long it had been since his last fix, refusing at that point to acknowledge that _he_ was the cause for the man's sudden abstinence. There was no smoking in a hospital, after all.

"Just seemed like you were having a nightmare, for a minute there."

Alice grimaced, knowing damn well that it wasn't _just_ a nightmare. But, explanations at this point seemed like a waste of breath. He just wanted to go home. He got to work on the IV line in his arm.

"Alice! Wait a second! The doctor said you lost a lot of blood, and you needed to…"

"Fuck. That."

He tore the fragile line from his arm, caring very little that he only tore an even bigger hole in his flesh. It was nothing compared to the damage his body bore elsewhere. Paul surged forward, dropping the smokes, and knocking Alice back onto the gurney. On a good day, Alice couldn't put up much of a fight. Weak as he was now, it was no contest, and he knew it. Didn't stop him from kicking and scratching at the other man, who desperately called for a doctor..

"Alice, quit it!"

Alice grunted, grabbing at the man's wrists. "If you let them drug me again, I swear to God I'll kill you!"

Surprised, Paul drew back. "Alice… what's gotten into you?" Paul asked, not even trying to hide his obvious worry.

Alice took a moment to steady his breathing, dragging a shaky hand through his tousled locks. The last thing he needed now was a panic attack on top of everything else.

"I just don't want to be drugged." He said, feeling somewhat like a child who'd just been chastised. He sounded unreasonable, and he knew it.

Paul just shook his head. "Its saline, Alice." he said, gesturing to the IV stand. "Just saline. You lost a lot of blood. It's not drugging you; it's keeping you hydrated."

"I don't care."

"Alice… do you remember how you got here?"

Alice knew exactly how he got there. He fell asleep and made himself vulnerable. That's what he did. He preyed on you in your dreams, after you're exhausted, and mentally incapable of fighting him. But how the hell do you say that to someone who hasn't experienced it?

"What happened?"

Paul scratched the back of his head subconsciously. "I found you at your apartment." he murmured, almost sheepish. "You were late for rehearsal. I didn't know what else to do…"

"You _broke_ into my apartment?" Alice asked, feeling a bit miffed at the revelation.

"I didn't know what else to do." Paul said defensively. "I called the police, but they said that…"

"You got the _police_ involved?" Alice asked again, now horrified.

"…that they couldn't do anything since you hadn't been gone that long." Paul finished, giving him an annoyed look. "When I got in to your apartment, I found you bleeding on the floor. I called for an ambulance, and they took you here."

Paul turned his gaze away then, and Alice knew this was where the conversation turned awkward. "The doctor said you were really hurt… Were you mugged or something?"

"Just saline?" Alice asked, changing the subject quickly. "Nothing else in there, right?"

"Nothing else." Paul reassured him, sounding almost grateful. "Nothing that I know of."

"That you know of?"

"Alice, please." Paul said, grabbing Alice's hand before he could do anything rash. "You need to be here. You haven't been recovering well. There are a lot of cuts and bruises that haven't healed yet, and they haven't been able to figure out why."

"It's because I'm here. I need to go home." Alice insisted, his tone bordering on whining.

"Look, I'll talk to a doctor, but I can't…"

The lights in the room flickered, silencing both with a lingering feeling of unease. But they returned just as strong, and neither one of the room's occupants gave it another thought.

"I can't promise anything." Paul finished.

"Forget it. Let me do the fucking paperwork and let me go."

The lights flickered again, and finally went out all together. Alice could just make out Paul biting his lower lip from the lights filtering in from the street.

"The generators should come on in a minute, I think."

When they didn't, Paul gave Alice a look. It became unsettlingly quiet in the small hospital. Paul didn't do well in dark places, and he was looking rather pale and aggravated at the moment (no doubt in part to his current stress over Alice.) "Can I trust you to stay here while I find out what's going on?"

Alice recognized that tone. That was most likely Paul's excuse to slip outside for smoke. He gave him a long-suffering sigh, but nodded, knowing damn well he wasn't about to keep his promise. He didn't even wait for Paul to get down the hall before he kicked the guardrail down.

The hospital was a disaster. There was hardly anyone to stop him, as most of the staff had left to deal with the failing patients in critical care. Without power going to the life support systems, almost everyone was failing. Those who could be kept alive manually had the best chance. Alice figured it would take them a while to figure out what had caused the outage, much less get everyone stabilized. Those who didn't need immediate assistance were ignored, making it easy for Alice to slip by.

The cause of the power outage became immediately apparent, strolling into the ER as if he had any business there. He didn't seem the least bit affected by the panicked staff rushing around him. In fact, it was his unnatural cool that got Alice's attention in the first place. The man, in turn, noticed him, and quickly brushed by the attendants to take Alice into his arms.

And this man, whom Alice had seen tear people limb from limb, very gently brushed one cold hand through Alice's tangled mop. Alice allowed it, because despite the fact that his advances were not normally welcomed, he had never actually raised a hand towards him, which was far more promising then he had already seen from the man in his dreams.

"I'm okay." Alice whispered. But what's one last lie to someone who couldn't understand it anyways?


End file.
